Headed to Holly Springs

At long last, we (me, SmokinRach and DC) head out this morning to compete in our first ever KCBS competition down in Holly Springs, MS. I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. Everything is packed but we had rain all day yesterday (which is now centered over the Jack) and last night so we still have to pack the trailer. The good thing is that everything is sitting in one of my garage bays just waiting to be loaded. It's only 30 minutes away so we should be down there by noon at the latest. Don't know how many teams there are this year but there were (I believe) 22 at last year's. This is only their 2nd year though and being as close as it is to Memphis, I can only imagine it getting bigger in years to come. We did have a "dry run" of sorts at our county fair's BBQ competition a couple of months back to work out the kinks. What we learned is that you don't need near as much stuff as you take (although it is comforting to have it with you in case you do need it :-D) and we did pretrim the ribs and chicken this time. That alone is a couple hours work. Per Kim's advice, we did keep the original packaging and receipts in case anything is said. Probably won't need it but I've learned it's best to have and not need than need and not have. I'm figuring to have everything setup and all the meat juked up by 3 so we can take a walk around and meet some new friends.

Listening to all your stories about doing comps and stuff had a lot to do with what led up to today. I had forgotten how much fun this stuff is back when we were doing MIM comps years ago. And then seeing some of ya'll over at Smoke on the Water in AR just confirmed what I had been missing. Of course, I had also forgotten how much work it is too. But it's all good. And while winning would be great, I'm truly just hoping not to come in DAL.

Well, time to hop to it. That trailer isn't going to load itself. Coffee's ready, sun is coming up, the clouds are breaking and there's a slight chill in the air. It's going to be a good day and a great weekend.

Best of luck to all those competing this weekend.

I just realized I never posted the results of this. There were 25 teams total and we came in 17th overall. Our goal was achieved as we did not come in DAL. :-D There were only 6 KCBS CBJ's there. Since this used to be a MBA event, there may have been some MBA judges there but only 6 KCBS CBJ's. One thing about this, Jiggy Piggy took GC, Big River BBQ took reserve and our new friends, the Redneck Grillers, took 3rd. One thing I learned down there, certified judges or not, the cream still rises to the top.

Chicken came in 13th. We thought it looked darn good but as soon as we bit into it, the smiles went away. Farkin' rubbery skin!!!! Will apply the hold over the coals until the skin crispens mod next time. Plenty of time to practice this over the winter.

Ribs came in 21st. We thought they would do a lot better than this. Don't really know what happened but maybe they wanted to see babybacks instead of spares.

Pork came in 21st as well. We did a whole shoulder instead of two BB's and I spent waayyyyyy too much time picking through it. I was having a heckuva time finding presentable bark and a big no-no.....I didn't load the box up like I should. Plus the pieces may be a bit too big. That and with the temps being a bit cool I'm sure it was cold by the time it got to the judges table. I'm thinking if we make a lot of little improvements here, we'll have a better shot.

Brisket came in 3rd......our first walk!!!! Heck yeah!! Although the appearance will be improved on, the taste and tenderness were spot on. I think we're on to something here.

Since I know everybody likes pics, I've attached pics of our boxes that I think turned out pretty good for our first time (thanks for the tips, Kim!). And thanks to my lovely wife for putting those boxes together. She entered a lot of the extra categories and I had to put in a pic of her anything but turn in (squash casserole) that she created. She took 2nd with it.

Let me know what you think and I'll tell you what the judges thought. One thing, if you see any garnish sticking out, ignore it. It was tucked in before it was turned in. Nice thing about taking pics of the boxes, you see things like that before you close the lid. :wink: